Gaming systems are common devices in casinos or other establishments. Such gaming systems typically include one or more gaming units, each capable of facilitating the play of one or more games such as, for example, slots, video blackjack, video poker, keno, and bingo.
Progressive gaming systems have been developed in which gaming units are electronically linked to one another and/or to a host computer. (The progressive gaming system may be configured such that one or more of the electronically linked gaming units serves as a host computer.) The electronically linked gaming units can be located near or far from one another and may even be located in separate casinos, such as in a so-called wide are progressive (“WAP”) network.
Electronically linking the gaming units permits the gaming units to be configured in a group, so that people using each of the gaming units in the group each add to, and each have a chance to win, a progressive jackpot. The progressive jackpot grows in magnitude with each wager made on any one of the group of gaming units in the progressive gaming system. Accordingly, if a large number of gaming units form the group in the progressive gaming system, the progressive jackpot may be dramatically bigger than the jackpot for each gaming unit if the gaming units were configured in a stand-alone manner.
One example of a progressive gaming system operates as follows. A player begins a game by wagering an amount of money at a gaming unit that is linked to other similar gaming units and to a host computer to form a progressive network. A fraction of the wager is allocated to a progressive jackpot. The amount of the progressive jackpot is then communicated to each of the gaming units in the progressive network, and may be displayed on each of the gaming units in the progressive network and/or on a large overhead electronic sign in the vicinity of one or more of the gaming units in the progressive network.
In such a progressive gaming system, in the event that one of the gaming units in the progressive network yields a winning game outcome that is associated with a progressive jackpot, the winning game outcome is communicated to the host computer. The host computer may be programmed to respond to this communication by performing a number of security checks, such as verifying that the winning game outcome is correct and that the gaming unit that yielded the winning game outcome was not tampered with. If this security check leads to a conclusion that the winning game outcome is invalid, the invalid winning game outcome is rejected and no payout is made.
If the host computer determines that the winning game outcome is valid, the host computer communicates an acknowledgement of the winning game outcome to the winning gaming unit. The host computer then communicates, to the entity or entities responsible for paying the winning player (which may be a gaming casino and/or a host company, if the progressive network includes gaming units in more than one location), the amount to be paid to the winning player. Finally, the host computer resets the progressive jackpot to a base value and communicates the new progressive jackpot to all of the gaming units in the progressive network.